


Now I'm on the Outside

by fairywriter



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barry Is A Bit Of A Mess, Flashbacks, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, He Has Good Friends Though, Kidnapping, Multi, Nightmares, Not As Dark As The Tags Make It Sound, Platonic Cuddling, Post Flashpoint, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Stalking, Suicidal Thoughts, Time Travel, Wedding Planning, Wellsobard Was A Creep
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-12 00:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7912588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairywriter/pseuds/fairywriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry's back in his own timeline but he might soon wish he wasn't. Grief and PTSD don't mix well with a stalker, a time traveling metahuman intent on destroying the multiverse, and being disowned by the only family he has left.</p>
<p>Luckily he's got a couple of scientists, a vigilante, a hacker, a handful of Legends, and even a few Rogues who aren't going to let him fight alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now I'm on the Outside

**Author's Note:**

> The Flash pretty much follows on from the end of S2, any discrepancies are the totally planned results of Barry's little time traveling mess (probably, I'll never admit it if they're not).
> 
> Arrow S4 also happened according to canon but the events of the season finale took place before Zoom killed Henry in The Flash.
> 
> LoT is a bit different... Vandal Savage and the Time Masters are gone but Leonard isn't and he also never dated Sara. Oh, and Hawkman is off brooding somewhere and Ray and Kendra are engaged. The Legends are now traveling around protecting time (that, or totally messing it up).
> 
> All pairings will be in the background except for Barry/Iris.  
> Dig/Lyla, Ray/Kendra, and Caitlin/Science! are safe, but who knows about anyone else. Slash is likely. I'm not coming between Olicity but they're not together in this fic.

Sometimes Barry felt like he was losing his mind. Since returning to his own timeline he was very slowly learning to deal with the grief of losing both of his parents so violently. Long talks with Joe, movie nights with Iris, awkwardly talking cars and speed with Wally, Captain Singh’s tacit understanding when Barry was slower than normal at work, Caitlin's hugs, Cisco's jokes and his quiet support when Barry was struggling. Barry didn't know what he would do without these things. But his guilt at running, at leaving this family, at the, few but obvious, changes that had rippled into this timeline from what he'd done, that guilt sometimes consumed him as much as his grief. And both the grief and guilt seemed like constant companions, better sometimes, worse others. His nights were the worst, he was scared to sleep, scared of what he would see in his nightmares, scared of blue lightening, of his own screams echoing in his ears as his father fell, of seeing his mother's terrified expression once more, of Iris screaming Eddie’s name, and of seeing the look of utter devastation on Professor Stein’s face as Caitlin sobbed in Barry's arms after the singularity was closed. So many people had been hurt and hearing their cries and screams, and seeing their looks of pain and sorrow every night was eating away at him. He had broken when Zoom had killed his father, shattered into tiny pieces and then tried to fix himself by changing all of time, which had definitely backfired on him, he was picking himself back up but gluing those pieces back together sometimes felt like more than he could possibly handle, even with all the love and support that surrounded him.

 

It had been a month since he'd come home. He hadn't been as active as the Flash for the first couple of weeks but eventually he'd gotten back out there and it had helped. Tonight he'd stopped three muggers, rescued a little girl and her grandma from a car accident, helped put out a fire, and stopped a robbery at a jewelry store. He was feeling pretty good, and really, that should've been his first clue that things were about to go wrong.

 

“Barry, there's another robbery! House on the corner of Hillshire and Goulding streets” Cisco's voice in his ear had him taking a quick left turn and speeding towards a residential area that was filled with old well-kept homes. He ran into the house and quickly cleared the rooms.

 

“Cisco, you sure of the address? There's no one here” he asked in confusion as he ran outside and paused just outside the light of a street lamp.

 

“Yeah man, that's where the police are heading right now” Cisco's voice was a bit garbled, he was probably sucking on a piece of candy.

 

“Well I don't see anything” Barry shook his head “I'll let the police handle this one, see you in a few minutes”.

 

He never heard Cisco's response, instead a sharp pain seared through his head and he collapsed, a vague buzzing filled his ears and he briefly felt someone grab his arms before he passed out.

 

* * *

 

 

“Barry! Barry! Come on man, answer me!” Cisco's shouts echoed through the cortex as the speedster’s vitals spiked.

 

“What's going on?” Caitlin asked as she ran into the room.

 

“I'm not sure. Barry was responding to a robbery call but he said no one was there but now he's not answering and obviously something happened” Cisco's hands were steady on his keyboard but his hurried voice betrayed his worry.

 

“I'll call Joe” Caitlin hated these calls, it never got easier to tell the detective his son was hurt or missing, but it was something she always took on herself. 

 

“Come on, pick up” she whispered but the phone kept ringing until the voicemail picked up “Joe, it's Caitlin. You need to call me back as soon as you get this”.

 

“The tracker on the suit is still working, at the speed he's moving I'd say he's in a vehicle” Cisco called out “I'm pulling up traffic cams now”.

 

Caitlin tried Joe's phone again but still didn't get an answer. 

 

“Found them!” Cisco said triumphantly “they're in a completely predictable black van, seriously, the second most clichéd kidnapping vehicle ever? These guys have no imagination”.

 

“Maybe not, but they've still somehow managed to kidnap the Flash, what are we going to do? Joe isn't answering” Caitlin fretted, peering over Cisco's shoulder at the screen.

 

“They've stopped” Cisco squinted at the house number as the van pulled into a garage.

 

“5473 Triplett Court” he jotted the address down “call Hartley and ask him to meet me there”.

 

“What? No, Cisco you don't even know how many people are there! And just how are you planning on dealing with them anyway?” Caitlin asked.

 

“I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve” Cisco replied “besides, we can't wait around for Joe, we may not know why they took Barry but it can't be for anything good”. He sprinted out of the room before Caitlin could say anything else and she huffed in annoyance as she grabbed her phone, dialed Hartley’s number, and ran after Cisco, she'd probably wait in the van, but she was still going. Like hell was Cisco going to do this without her there.

 

* * *

 

 

“I guess I do sort of owe you a favor” Lisa Snart practically purred into her phone and grinned, she could almost hear Cisco blushing as he fumbled for words.

 

“Text me the address sweetie, I'll see you in a bit” she turned serious as she hung up the phone. Someone had kidnapped the Flash? In the Rogues’ territory? That was unexpected, and worrying. She bit her lip in thought then dialed a number.

 

“Shawna, get the gang together, we've got a job”.

 

Ten minutes later and a small group of the Rogues, whichever ones could get there in time, were gathered in the tiny kitchen of Lisa’s latest safe house.

 

“Now, apparently there is a new group of troublemakers operating on our turf” she paused and glanced around at the various faces, some she liked and even marginally trusted, others she only kept around because it was less trouble to keep them close. She hadn't decided where Mardon fell on that scale yet, but she rather thought it was time to find out, and she knew she couldn't let him near an injured Flash anyway.

 

“Mardon, you'll take everyone but Shawna and go ahead and do that heist we'd planned for tomorrow night, I've heard rumors that this new group is after the same target so we need to get there first” she paused again and gave them a saucy wink “make lots of noise, we're in charge here so let's prove it”.

 

A hum of approval swept the room and Lisa smirked, it hadn't been easy to establish herself as the leader of such a diverse group of thieves and rapscallions but it had been well worth it. And they didn't need to know that there was little threat of anyone going after their target, or that it was just one street over from where the poor little CSI/metahuman (and Lisa is still disappointed that Lenny honestly believed she couldn't figure out that so-called “secret” identity) was being held captive. 

 

“What are we doing Boss?” Shawna asked once the rest had filtered out the door.

 

“We have a date with the Flash, he needs help” Lisa answered as she threw a motorcycle helmet at the other woman and grabbed a couple of leather jackets from the coat rack by the back door.

 

“We're helping the Flash?” Shawna asked incredulously.

 

“Look I know you don't like him, and I get why, that little prison of his was wrong on so many levels. But, Central City needs him. I'm not going to watch this city burn because there's no one to stop the people like that Zoom guy” Lisa used the argument most likely to win Shawna over, then waited for Shawna’s reluctant nod before leading the way to the garage.

 

                                                                                             ***

 

They stashed the motorcycle half a block away and walked the rest of the way. Cisco was waiting for them across the street from the house, he was standing by a hedge that didn't quite hide the STAR Labs van behind it. Lisa shook her head, she obviously needed to teach him a few basics to sneaking. He had a scrawny looking friend with him and Lisa stopped a second to appraise the new kid. Of course she knew who he was, how could she not as rich as his parents were, but she'd heard that Hartley Rathaway had all but disappeared after the particle accelerator explosion and she was a bit surprised to find him hanging out with Team Flash. She didn't let that surprise show though, she moved quickly past him and gave Cisco's cheek a big smooch. This time she didn't bother to hide her gleeful facial expression as Hartley and Shawna raised their eyebrows at them, Cisco's face was a treasure and she enjoyed putting that particular look on it far too much.

 

“Okay, what's the plan?” Shawna asked.

 

“Well, I was kind of waiting to see what Lisa thought was the best way to get inside, I think I can figure out her plan now though” Cisco answered, his expression turning from embarrassed to serious.

 

“Shawna can take me in first, there's a curtain open in the living room and the room appears to be empty so that's where we'll start, you boys can fight over who comes next. Once we're inside the plan is simple, find Flash, get out. Shawna stays with me while we're in there, she's a feisty fighter but she doesn't like weapons and I'm sure they'll have some unless they're metas. I'm assuming you two can handle yourselves?” Lisa asked.

 

Cisco and his friend exchanged a look before nodding at her. 

 

‘Interesting’ she thought, they may not have been sharing with the rest of the class, but Lisa was pretty sure these two had their own plan. As long as they all got out safely, she wouldn't complain about the secrecy, she understood the need for it all too well.

 

* * *

 

 

Barry slowly woke to a stifling darkness and he blinked rapidly, trying to figure out if he was blindfolded or if something was wrong with his eyes, a tiny sliver of light almost directly in front of him reassured him that it was the room itself that was dark. The silence was the next thing he noticed, it was as stifling as the darkness. He groaned slightly as he stretched a little, his hands were handcuffed in front of him and his legs were tied tightly together with a thick rope. He was sitting up and there seemed to be a wall at his back, it was hard to make any other observations with his head pounding. He slumped back against the wall and tried to vibrate out of the cuffs, one panic stricken moment later, and he realized he couldn't access his speed. He shivered, fear and pain were making it hard to think and he thought there was something else he should be trying but he couldn't figure it out. He wondered if Joe was looking for him yet, surely Cisco had noticed something weird. He consoled himself slightly by thinking of Joe's relieved smile when he found him. Of course, it would be better if he could get out himself so Joe wouldn't put himself in danger, he concentrated once again on trying to get out of the cuffs but the effort only left him weak and shaky. A creak from outside the door caused him to freeze, his breath caught as the door began to open.


End file.
